Landmark Decision to Build 38-Level Apartment Building in Melbourne's Suburbs

BOX Hill will be identifiable from almost all of Melbourne, after the Victorian Planning Minster Justin Madden “called in” a controversial 38-level tower, behind the Box Hill train station.

The tower would be the tallest outside of the CBD and St Kilda Road area, and is one of two projects called in by the Minister this month.

The other sped-through project is a $100 million homemaker centre in Springvale, in Melbourne’s south-east.

The approvals cite Labor’s Melbourne 2030 policy, later updated to Melbourne @ 5 Million, by building higher density housing around existing transport nodes.

Box Hill is one of six Central Activity Districts in the policy, and is seeing rampant residential and commercial development approvals.

The Whitehorse City Council had previously refused planning permission for the high-rise tower.

Critics say Melbourne’s planning strategies are replicating the disastrous and car-dependent roads of Sydney, and that its suburbs are losing their charm.

Minister Madden told The Age the Box Hill development would create jobs.

“The Brumby Labor Government is standing up for Victorian families by speeding up the planning process to create jobs, manage growth and help families secure their lifestyle,” he is reported as saying in The Age, which announced the tower’s approval.

He did not explain why he intervened this approval, proposed by the Barton Group.

Other projects “called in” by Minister Madden in recent months include the outgoing Amcor paper mill, in Alphington, which is being sold to Sydney-based billionaire Lang Walker, the Northcote Bowl site in Northcote, and a 24-level apartment building in Southbank.